Satoko Fujii & Joe Fonda: Thread Of Light

Damn the liner notes! If you didn't read the explanation of how this duo recording was produced, you would never guess it was not a studio session between pianist Satoko Fujii and bassist Joe Fonda. Thread Of Light was actually a product of the pandemic isolation, with Fujii in Kobe, Japan, and Fonda in New York. At the suggestion of Fonda, the pianist recorded her parts at home and sent music files to the bassist to study and, in time, add his voice. The success here is due to the duo's long association. The two have toured together and released three recordings on the Long Song Records label Four (2019), Mizu (2018), and Duet (2016).

The success can also be attributed to Joe Fonda's talents as a complement to any musicians he is performing with, be they in Barry Altschul's 3Dom Factor, Gebhard Ullmann's Conference Call, or The Fonda-Stevens Group, to name but a few. He tracks Fujii's restless piano on "Fallen Leaves Dance" in pursuit mode, matching stride and energy. Knowing this recording is not concurrent actually gives perspective on the artists' improvisational approach. Typically, an improvising musician would listen to their partner and react. The better the improviser, the shorter the time between the two acts. The best do this instantaneously. "Reflection" finds Fujii exercising her piano's insides, creating thunder and off kilter notes for Fonda to scramble bowed and plucked translations. The stop-start of "Anticipation" is an orchestrated dance of timing, and "Sekirei" is configured to sound as if the pianist is finishing the bassist's thought, when we know Fonda recorded his parts second. Elsewhere, each musician is heard on a solo track, Fujii's "Winter Sunshine and Fonda's "My Song." The finale, "Between Blue Sky And Cold Water," acts as a virtual encore, Fonda switches to cello as Fujii works both her keyboard and the strings inside the piano. The effect is cinematic, with the duo revealing broad vistas between the fourteen separate time zones.